HIP replaces 186 Downtown, NY jobs, breaking a massive promise
As a native New Yorker watching labor related news from around the country, I am always taken by stuff happening in the Big Apple. One news item that really got me going today was learning that 185 workers at the nonprofit health-insurance company, HIP, that covers sanitation workers, correction officers and more than a million other hard-working New Yorkers were told their jobs were being eliminated. Who are the replacement workers? Folks way out in Melville, Long Island. There is a lot more to this story though. HIP was the first company to move to Lower Manhattan since 9/11. They relocated downtown in October of 2004 leaving their digs on West 34th Street. People in the City, from the City, and watching the City from around the country really applauded this move … We all knew it was a move funded by more than $12 million of city, state and federal taxes – our taxes! The promise in 2004 was that these much needed jobs brought down to Lower Manhattan were going to be kept there until 2013. Politicians, union people, everyday people … we all applauded this awesome move. Unfortunately the promise is broken just shy of three years later! “The state gave HIP this money in good faith," said Pat Hoffman, business agent for Local 153 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union. "Now the company is trying to shift the jobs to Long Island. This is a perfect example of why corporate welfare is a waste of the taxpayers' money." Hoffman was interviewed for an article on this in the New York Newsday. In the article we learn the fact that this is not a job transfer 2 ½ hours from downtown. What this equals is a shaft for hard working dedicated people – meaning, if they want their job out on the Island, they have to reapply. What do you do with 24 years of seniority? Start out at entry level? Come on … With this news now out in the open, where are the politicians, the business owners, the unions, and the tax payers? The unions are coming out … but I haven’t heard the mayor or governor showing up to cry fowl; hmm, imagine that! Bookmark/Search this post with: |
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Thanks Richard for getting
Thanks Richard for getting this up right away , it's really horrible to the people who have worked for HIP for so many years to be told they have to travel a minimum of 1 1/2 hours away from where their job previously was , the entire idea of using the "Empire State Development Corp.'s WTC Job Creation and Retention Program" money for HIP's relocation downtown was to get decent paying , good jobs back into that area of lower Manhattan . People who would shop in the local eateries , grocery shops , etc .
"Now HIP didn't do this alone. You and I helped. With more than 12 million of our state, city and federal tax dollars. The insurance giant promised to bring these much-needed jobs downtown - more than 1,700 of them - and keep them here until 2013. In exchange, HIP got that fat grant through the Empire State Development Corp.'s WTC Job Creation and Retention Program."
Taking our tax monies and not holding up to their end of the bargain is outright criminal .
I agree